Another Mini Quilt - Anvil Blocks

While up at "Camp Charlotte" last weekend, for the AQS Quilt Week in Syracuse, I played with scraps.   How can I not?   I mean, when you're hanging out with the SCRAP QUEEN of ScrapitudeQuilts... ya GOTTA play with scraps!!  I have another post coming with all my AQS finds and sights coming...it's a long one.  :-)

Anywho, I finished my Bionic Gear Bag while I was up there (posted that on Monday), and also made a few more blocks on my Thangles Mini Sampler.   

Mini Thangles Progress

I brought my favorite scrap bins with me to play with and my 18 x 24" design wall.  These Stackable Sterlite bins are my favorite product when it comes to organizers.   They "SNAP" together.   And you can snap as many as you want!  They come with 2 drawers and a top.   But I've stacked these puppies up to 4 before and happily carried them around.   

This particular bin has my 1 1/2", 2", 2 1/2" scraps in them.   I've been doing pretty well at keeping up with the scrap bags.   I'm trying really hard to get anything that is left over from a project into the "SCRAP TUB".  The Scrap tub is a huge thing on wheels.   If a sew day with the Gurlz creeps up on me and I'm not prepared to take anything, I can grab the TUB, my iron, a cutting mat and a rotary cutter and work on my scraps. 

Some of the other bins have left over triangles, BONUS TRIANGLES left over from Bonnie Hunter projects that need to be pressed & trimmed, Half Square Triangles (HST's), some 4-patches and a bunch of pre-cut mini charm packs.

My focus was that little ziplock bag full of HST's laying up front there.    That bag WAS stuffed full of them.   One of my quilting friends that passed away several years ago made them.  Sue Reynolds, whom I called Sue-Babe, would have fits of energy that were focused usually on one thing. Sometimes it would be flying geese, sometimes hand embroidery, sometimes 3 1/2 squares.   Whatever it was, she went bonkers making\collecting them.   No idea what she had planned for this little box of HST's but I ended up with them after she passed away.  So it's been in my mind to make a little "Sue-Babe Mini Quilt" with them.  I got them all out and started trying different ways to put them together.   I settled on a little quilt that I saw in one of my Mini Patterns.  I love these little patterns.   They are called "Quilt Squares - Small Quilts" By Lori Smith - you can see the pattern here.  The one I picked was from her first pattern in the series.  I think it's called an Anvil  Block.

Sue-Babe HST's

It turned out so sweet and cute.   I'll add it to my new QUILT ME page that I made on my blog so that I don't lose track of it and remember to quilt it!  You can check out my other pages by clicking the tabs across the top of my blog.

My Projects - is where some of my current UFO's are.  I'm really trying to keep up on this.

Quilt Me - is where the finished Tops, Table Runners and Wall Hangings are that need Quilting

Finished - Finished!  YAY!

A Finish! Bionic Gear Bag

I've been chomping at the bit to make one of these Bionic Gear Bags!  I riled up a few pals to make them too!   I found it because I was looking for a needle book with a grid to make as Goodie Gifts for our Spring Retreat.  I came across this image on Google and trotted off to Craftsy.com to buy the pattern for it!

Bionic Needle Organizer Wallet

Well after that, true to "Jan-Form"....I ended up clicking through links and searching some more.  That's when I realized that the Needle book was actually an ACCESSORY to a much COOLER item!

Bionic Gear Bag, Dumpling Dish & Needle Wallet

Bionic Gear Bag

"Tricked Out" Pockets

Several people in the Facebook group asked for details of what I did to "trick out" my pockets.   The pattern designer has a very unique way of writing patterns.   It's very very long (wordy), but she says early on that she wrote it in this manner so that you can feel like you are sitting along beside her making the project with her!    If you are a thorough instruction reader, you'll love it.   If you are the type of quilter that goes right for the bullet points, cutting list and pictures....you WILL struggle with this pattern. Any way, at the point in building the bag that you can add features to the zipper pockets, she tells you.  And makes some suggestions!   Here's what I did:

• Added Magnetic Snaps to the bag AND the Dumpling Dish so that I can stand stuff up behind the bowl without the bowl moving.
• A small pocket for my screwdriver\or thimble.   (Mostly screwdriver - I am the resident "Vintage sewing machine fixing person" at every sewing gathering...so I always need it to rescue a machine from it's owner
• Small square Vinyl pockets on THREE of the pockets.   The paper tab that is in there was the thing I used to determine size.   I swear I forget what's in zippered pockets, so a label to fill out is really helpful to me!
• Couple of different small sections of elastic, spaced for specific tools.  I want to be able to stand up and easily grab certain things while I'm working and have a quick place to put them back
• Vinyl on 4th zipper pouch.   One side is for Index cards (shopping lists, or "put-it-in-the-BGB-list", etc.  and the other is for business cards.(Grin - MY business cards)

Bionic Gear Bag Closed.

I spent a LOT of time making sure the binding was perfect and it was totally worth it.  I can't tell you how many projects I've done where the last step is to "bind" and it makes the entire project look like crap.  It's one of the most valuable things I've learned from the By Annie Classes I'm taking.

GLUE BASTE BINDING!!!   THEN SEW!!

Check out MORE design walls at Patchwork Times or Monday Making or Moving it Forward or Main Crush Monday or even BOMS away Monday!

Here's a few "In Progress" pictures along the way.